100th post!!!

For some reason reaching this significant milestone in my blogging..... life? Career? Journey? Why not supernatural adventure? Alice-in-wonderland romp? feels like an almighty achievement that should be acknowledged (if not by a party, cakes,teeeaaaa! and much singing and dancing, (Alice in Wonderland, definitely Alice in Wonderland! and, I realise, yes I have just managed brackets within brackets?!?!) then at least by a joyous WAAYHHHOOOOOO!!!! from me and maybe a slightly bewildered glance from you!). So, WAAAAAHOOOOOO!!!! HOOORAAAY for me! There it is, it had to be done! Now down to business.
As it happens the post I had planned to write (before getting marginally sidetracked by the realisiation of it being my 100th post! 100th POST!!! That's 100 things I've said and shared!) was quite appropriately celebratory. For I have actuallly etched my first copper plate in the studio and it did not, as I had feared, turn into a complete disaster! Another cheer!
Of course, printing will prove it's real success but it has come out better then I could have hoped on the plate. As we have yet to experiment with aquatint I wanted to create an image that would stand alone just as a line print without the opportunity of creating large areas of tone. I think this is achieved. Celebrations all round. And...with an image of a rabbit/hare as my parting shot, this is most decidedly the 100th post of my Alice-inWonderland-romp!

Printmaking again.

I have found a place to do printing closer to home with a local (very talented) artist who is in the process of devoting a part of her studio into a print space (with a little help from myself). We've been waiting for the arrival of a press (sooo exciting!! it should be arriving in the next few weeks!!!) and so in-between gathering up the many and various materials needed for etching, we've been experimenting with Kitchen Lithography (check out the video below....all I'll say is tin foil and Coka Cola!) and I've been re-introduced to Monoprinting.

After falling in love with etching, which is all about the process, the very long, slow and multi-layered process, I'd always thought the simplicity of monoprinting relegated it to more of a sketchbook partypiece. A cheaty way of printmaking really when you took into account the skill needed for most other forms of printing. However, after struggling with the temperamental and down right contrary nature of kitchen litho, it was exactly it's very ease that made me see it in a new light. Dare I even say (such an infuriating term as) the quality of line you can achieve from monoprinting, also recommended it to me when it hadn't before. The pieces below were really just experimental for me but I loved the results. 

   

I was going to enter a film poster competition for films directed by women, however, I struggled to draw a good likeness of Holly Hunter from The Piano and then subsequently ran out of time. I got some nice sketches for it to work out composition and shading though and I'd like to point out that the writing was done free hand and back-to-front while holding the pen strangely so as to prevent wresting my hand on the paper and in so doing transferring unwanted ink. Pretty good going I'd say!

Etching at the Art Academy (part 2)

I finished the evening etching classes. I'm sad not to have a weekly trip to the print room any more (six weeks just wizzed by like a train not scheduled to stop at the station) and I'll miss not having that feeling of purpose on a thursday night, but I'm also a little bit "phew", a little relieved, to be able to go straight home after work. Isn't that silly?!?! I hope you know what I mean though. I'm going to stop talking now, as you might all be getting the wrong idea! Here's the end result: 

p.s I'm really pleased with this plate! It was so easy to print from........could I actually be getting the hang of this etching malarky?!

Etching at The Art Academy

So, about four weeks ago, I started an evening etching class at The Art Academy in London. Four weeks ago, I also told myself that I would write this post.........oooops! I can verify with some relief that the etching class has been a lot more productive!
It's been over a year now that I last used the print room at Plymouth University, and while I had said I would try to find a print studio in London I could use to keep the etching going, I was worried that I would have forgotten how to use it by the time I got round to making good on the promise I had made to myself. I felt a refresher course was in order. Cue a quick search through Google and an halaluja moment when I found this fantastic six week evening course just round the corner from London Bridge at The Art Academy. Perfect for after work. I'll admit it's been tiring going straight from work to a three hour etching session but I've been enjoing the experience. It's also been good to be reminded of why I loved it before and to gain usefull tips on how to complete diferent stages of the process at home. Who knows, maybe I'll set up my own makeshift studio in the kitchen!
Last lesson I got to the stage of applying an aquatint and then etching for tone and shading. I find that the most nervracking stage because it really feels like guess work! I can't imagine getting to the stage when it won't! Next week will be the big test.....when I actually print. In the mean time, keep your fingers crossed for me and I'll leave you with the drawing of what I line etched. The tone is going on top. After spending a whole evening etching this image onto my plate, I then dreamed about foxes all night!

 

An etching to finish.

I am sitting here on a quite honestly horrendous July afternoon with rain speckling my window and contemplating life after uni (it really has finished now, I took my degree show work down on Saturday). I have four rolls of film sitting on my desk that I can't afford to get developed and I have more money in my purse then I do in my bank account. The outlook is bleak. However, while I hang in this state of limbo, pulled between going home and working part time at my local farm shop and hopefully making enough money to go travelling or staying in Plymouth to find a job and staying closer to friends and perhaps more motivation to continue drawing, I have the time to share pictures of the very last ever etching I was able to make in the university print room just before the degree show. The image comes from the last scene of a comic I drew last term as part of the 24 hour comic event I took part in. Did I put up pictures from that? I can't remember! Well, it's only a very small etching, ideal for a book mark or something. 

The House of Bernarda Alba continued.......

Well, what can I say, I haven't uploaded in a very long time now and so consequently there is quite a backlog! Just so you know, it took me many hours to scan nearly 30 pages!.........ok, not many hours.....maybe, half of one but still, a long time :) Hopefully the work is worth it? I'll leave you to decide on that one.

Nights at the Circus

In this picture Mignon sits forlornly in a bath tub just glimpsed through the half open door. The image is an etching using a method called aquatint.

In the circus ring, as the audience watches, the searing strains of music stirring the air, Mignon waltzes slowly with a tiger.

 

Fevvers takes to the air inside the Russian theatre, her wings unfurling as she ascends to the Gods.

Nights at the Circus

Fevvers, an Etching

Anyone who has read Angela Carter's novel "Nights at the Circus" will know that it is a veritable treasure chest of vividly evocative images, rich in texture and detail and just ripe for depicting, any illustrators dream.

This image of Fevvers, the story's feisty protagonist, is an etching. I used this design for the front cover (adding the title and authors name later by hand).